Artist’s Studio ‘The Dance’ 1974

Roy Lichtenstein made ‘Artist’s Studio ‘The Dance’ using his signature bold lines and flat planes of color. Can you imagine him there in the studio thinking about Matisse? It’s got this real graphic punch; look at those dancers floating in the background. He’s flattened everything out, right? I'm sure he’s playing with art history, winking at us, making it new. It feels playful, the way he's thrown in those lemons and brushes, like a still life gone pop. And what about those musical notes?! It is as though he is suggesting to us that our experience of an artwork can orchestrate a space of inquiry and an array of feelings. Lichtenstein’s paintings feel like a conversation. He knew art was one big mashup of ideas, and each artist adds their own little riff. I feel like he’s saying that painting is like a dance of looking, thinking, and feeling.